Palmerston Island Holiday Guide

Map of Palmerston Atoll

Palmerston Atoll is a remote atoll in Cook Islands with around six small motu (or coral islets) around an inner lagoon over 11 kilometres wide. It gained its name from Captain Cook, who named it after Lord Palmerston, First Lord of the Admiralty. It is in the centre of Cook Islands some 500 km (310 miles) north-west of the main island Rarotonga. There is no formal holiday accommodation on Palmerston, though it is possible to arrange homestays. Pacific Expeditions' Bounty Bay research ship runs a boat trip to Palmerston from Rarotonga, primarily for diving and eco-adventure, and filming.

Some of the main features and activities of Palmerston Atoll are as follows:

• Although quite a large atoll, the land mass is small, totally only around 2.6 sq km (one square mile).
• The highest point is only 6 metres (20 feet) above sea level. It earns the nickname "the Mountain" !
• The atoll is particularly prone to bad windy weather especially in mid-summer (January and February) and has experienced about 8 very severe hurricanes in the past 100 years.
• Three boat passages allow access to small boats (not large ships).

Captain Cook was reputed to be the first person to discover Palmerston (in June 1774) though he did not land until his third and final trip in 1977. The later discovery of primitive tools and ancient graves led missionary William Gill to believe that the atoll had been inhabited in the atoll's pre-European history. From 1863 till his death in 1899, William Masters occupied the atoll with a number of Polynesian wives. From being a barrelmaker and carpenter on board a ship, he became the master of Palmerston and inhabitants of the atoll are direct descendant